Netnet Camomot THERE’S still chika that the incumbent mayor won’t win in his reelection bid next year because there are Cagayanons who now prefer the violet mayor again after what the yellow one has done to city hall and the city. Why, what has he done? Hmmm. If there’s an adult coloring book, Cagayan de Oro has a political coloring book that you can make kuriskuris on. That’s how Kim Daguman, who now loves coloring books, calls it––kuriskuris. But for CDO, the available colors are limited to yellow, violet and orange. At a birthday party, the topic again was about the three Cagayan de Oro mayoral candidates for next year’s election and I was asked who I would vote for. My reply: One particular political color. Because I want to give him three more years to implement his plans for the city. And if those three years will be as good as the first set, then I’ll vote for him again in 2019 if it’s his wish-ko-lang to be mayor forevermore. The corporation that he used to work for, which made him the corporate guy that he is, complete with a corporate mindset, happens to be expanding its real estate presence in the city, and having him as the city mayor may make this combination as the best team ever for CDO. Unless you want to have coffee with him after work which is one thing he may not be able to do amidst his presumably busy schedule. Have you ever met a corporate executive? If you put him in a team outside of the corporation he works for, he will still stand out because of the focus and discipline he learned at work. That's what I noticed at a team building activity. There are people who thrive in a corporate setting and there are those who’d rather set up a home office, never to be seen again. I belong to the latter group. A city mayor, however, has no choice but to face his minions daily, answer their calls and texts, solve their problems, you know, “Take my hand/We’ll walk awhile, we’ll talk awhile.” The madlang pehpohl want a mayor who can have a boodle fight with them, who can be their berks, calls them bai or pre or by their first name: Oi, bai Pedro, kumusta na man tong atop sa imong balay sa relocation site, na-repair na ba? That kind of familiarity. They don’t want a mayor who can’t remember their first name no matter how many times they’ve been introduced to each other. Such as, they meet again for the nth time at a gathering, and the mayor’s face is blank, no sign of recognition at all. That’s probably why they now want a Cagayanon to be their mayor. A Cagayanon who knows their first name. Who brings them to all the roads his funds have constructed. Who loves to have photo ops with them. Who's one of the boys. These are the people who probably also love the usual typical Pinoy movie ending––and they live happily ever after: “Hindi ako makapaniwalang/Ikaw ay nasa aking piling... Kung ikaw ay isang panaginip, ayoko ko nang magising.” So Catholic and so friendly to the teachings of the Church. Which could not be said of “Heneral Luna.” This is the movie that may again prompt a clueless Pinoy to say, Way nada ang ending kay namatay ang bida. The same comment he gave for “Jesus of Nazareth.” And there’s more where that came from as the clueless Pinoy wonders aloud why Apolinario Mabini remains seated throughout the “Luna” movie. I slept or was absent during all my Philippine and world history classes but at least I know why Mabini had no action scenes. It’s forgivable for younger Pinoys not to know about Mabini’s physical condition. Hey, they don’t even know why the elder Marcos was called a dictator and they now want his son to be president. If they're not aware of the dictator-father's Martial Law which their parents grew up with in the '70s and early '80s, how can we expect them to know about Mabini's story which happened more than century ago? Marcos' New Society had a nice ring to it. We were too young then to appreciate that ring and since our parents and grandparents were not politically active, they simply and quietly followed his presidential decrees. Many Pinoys were killed in that Society, no thanks to Martial Law. It was only in the early '80s when I was studying in Manila that I finally had a grasp of what was happening in the country. There was no Internet yet at that time, and the Marcos-controlled media could barely churn out the truth, so that living in CDO gave us a sense of OK lang yon, that everything was OK pa sa alright, the same feeling that the younger generation has now for the Marcos dictatorship which they may erroneously liken to the leadership of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew. Of course, the Marcoses are preening their hardened feathers with this new-found and laundered popularity among the Pinoy youth whose population is way above that of their parents and grandparents who are too tired to teach them about Martial Law and the New Society. The country's elder citizens prefer to travel and enjoy the perks of their job promotions and expanding businesses, as long as the prosperity continues to offer the best things in life, bahala na si Batman with the younger generation. They're willing to surrender their children's future to the usual Pinoy cycle of politics as what the Pinoy audience learned from “Heneral Luna”––history keeps repeating itself anyway. Keber. Let the young learn their lessons the hard way as we did during our time. The Marcoses' public relations machinery is working overtime to sustain the preening which may convince the older Pinoys, too, to reconsider their memories of the '70s, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, People Power, and that day the dictator, his family and cronies finally left Malacanang to go swimming in Hawaii. Time heals all wounds, as the saying goes. The Marcoses left in 1985. It has been 30 years. They were even allowed to come back and are now in the Senate, with the probability of returning to Malacanang if all the other presidentiables will fail in their fun run. This is one family that will have the last and loudest laugh once they're back inside the august halls of the Palace by the river. And Imelda's terno will be in vogue again, in case it did disappear despite the State of the Nation's annual red carpet. As for the CDO local fun run, will the former violet mayor have the last laugh in next year's election? Or will that laugh echo from the yellow or orange camp? Meanwhile, violet is reportedly preparing for his electoral campaign by availing of the best technology that the medical world can offer. The yellow and orange candidates should consider having that, too, since they also have dual citizenship now––Pinoy and senior. No more spring to their chicken.